Officials from Ridgewood's Parks and Recreation Department make budget requests

Supervisors and supporters of the Parks and Recreation Department pleaded with Ridgewood Council members last week, making their annual appeal for funding consideration and fewer budget cuts this year. Champions for the department also emphasized that employees continue to "do more with less," but they cannot maintain high levels of service in the future without financial assistance.

The Ridgewood Parks and Recreation Department, headquartered at The Stable, has been doing "more with less," according to department officials.

The recent session was the council's latest meeting with various village supervisors in an attempt to trim the fat off of a municipal spending plan, which is just south of $50 million, and present a zero percent average tax increase to Ridgewood property owners. Council members are scheduled to introduce this year's operating budget April 23, and they expect to hold a public hearing and vote on the plan May 28.

Parks officials have been dealt the brunt of financial reductions since the economic decline of 2008, and the department took one of the largest budget cuts between 2012 and last year. Last Thursday, Tim Cronin said running the department under such financial constraints "has been tough."

Cronin, longtime department director, noted that the parks division has been operating with fewer workers than in years past. Parks, according to Cronin, is staffed with three shade tree workers, three for parks maintenance, a supervisor and a part-time secretary.

"I maintain my own lawn, and I have seen my neighbors use up to five landscapers to take care of their properties," he said. "[Parks] has three men to do the entire village."

For 2014, Cronin is requesting funding for as many as three temporary seasonal workers, who would work for nine months each and receive an hourly wage, but without any health, pension or other benefits. The parks division currently uses one seasonal worker, whereas in the past it had up to six, he said.

The division is also seeking a full-time laborer, which would represent an approximate $64,000 expense for salary and health benefits combined.

Additional anticipated expenses for this year include costs for equipment and other supplies. According to Cronin, the budget line item for equipment maintenance will increase by $10,400 over last year; though that number represents particular expenses that were not in the 2013 budget.

Repairs to the village's tree stump grinder, for example, are one of the more expensive fixes - the machine requires nearly $4,000 in maintenance.

"If you don't keep these up to specification, it will be a real safety problem," Cronin said.

About $9,000 is requested for various horticultural supplies, specifically for about 70 trees to replace those lost during recent storms. That amount, Cronin proposed, could become an expense for Ridgewood's newly minted Shade Tree Commission should the Village Council elect to give it a spending allowance.

The parks division has reduced spending in other areas, including staffing. Over the past year, Cronin and other officials reduced the staff salaries from a $52,000-to-$75,000 range, to a new structure where $52,000 is the highest annual payment.

"We've lowered most salaries significantly ... we also combined two supervisory roles into one and we deleted a management position," Cronin said. "We've done some significant changes where the opportunity presented itself."

The recreation division is also seeking a funding increase for equipment maintenance, a $7,000 line item that is mostly driven by the replacement of an irrigation system at the Stable.

New federal minimum wage requirements will force a 17 percent increase in recreation's salaries for 80 temporary and seasonal day camp workers. That increase, however, will be "recouped and then some by the user fee," Cronin said.

Graydon Pool, one of the recreation division's largest components, requires $15,200 in facility maintenance, a cost that is up 337 percent over last year. The proposed work includes equipment repair and new landscaping.

"Can I push any of those? Maybe the landscaping [which is estimated at $1,000]," Cronin said. "But nothing else. [The pool] doesn't operate unless you have those other items."

The pool will also see a $44,000 increase in the "Other Contractual Services" line item. That amount includes a one-time, $25,000 fine payable to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which cited the village last year for improperly emptying muddy water into the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook.

Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld noted that comparing the pool's anticipated revenues against the salaries paid to employees "looks like Graydon is turning a profit ... but once you start adding all the indirect costs and the allocations, you see the number goes the other way."

Though council members see the "fully loaded cost" of Graydon, "I want to point out that ... certain businesses we would carry a deficit," she said.